Political Football Without Apology

To get away from clichés about African football, maybe you need stop sending sportswriters. Case in point: Political journalist Steve Bloomfield’s new book Africa United: Soccer, Passion, Politics and the First World Cup in Africa, which is only glancingly about actual matches and much more about “what these matches tell us about how Africa works and how Africa is changing” — from the disintegration of Somalia through the eyes of its national team to a mineral magnate trying to recreate Chelsea in the DR Congo. Read it with Ian Hawkey’s Feet of the Chameleon to get a near-perfect portrait of African football. (Alex Usher/Pitch Invasion)

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The Spoken Word of Ray Hudson

Smoother than the back of a spoon
Lasers flying
Looks like he's in a disco

Whoever's doing that
The morons
Your village is missing you.

(Real Madrid-Barcelona, GOLTV, 16 April 2011)

Quote of the Moment: The Threat of Chinese Gambling

"In 1994, during an English match-fixing scandal, Nick Hornby argued in the FT that if match-fixing existed, it dwarfed all the game’s other problems. 'Once we begin to doubt that what we are seeing is real, then we will cease to care,” he wrote, “and without the caring, it is all over.' China’s rise, and the internet, bring that moment closer." (Simon Kuper/FT.com)